主题：【文摘】世卫组织40年中首次将警戒级别提至最高级6级 -- 葡萄

南半球的冬季正是“流感季节（flu season）”，所以世卫发出严重警告。澳洲的同学多加小心！

在美国的同学请参考美国卫生部的报告和 Guidance.

http://www.cdc.gov/h1n1flu/update.htm

世卫或因澳洲疫情宣布流感大爆发

BBC 2009-06-10

随着甲型H1N1流感疫情的持续扩散和澳大利亚疫情的急剧恶化，世卫组织表示可能宣布流感疫情大爆发。

世卫组织助理总干事福田敬二透露，世卫组织“已非常接近”宣布流感疫情大爆发，即将流感疫情警告升高至最高的六级。

他解释说，世卫组织目前正在努力确保各方对流感疫情大爆发有正确的理解，以免有关宣布造成恐慌。

世界卫生组织已经40余年没有宣布过全球性的流感疫情大爆发。

世界卫生组织需要得到确凿证据显示甲型H1N1流感已经在北美以外地区出现较大人传人疫情，才能宣布流感全球性大爆发。

澳大利亚境内感染甲型H1N1流感的人数在过去一个星期内翻了四番，目前已经超过1200人，成为北美以外受感染人数最多的国家。

BBC驻澳大利亚记者默瑟报道，维多利亚州及其首府墨尔本是疫情最为严重地区，当地受感染者已经超过1000人。

疫情

福田敬二强调，流感疫情大爆发界定的是病毒传播的地理范围，因此即使宣布六级流感疫情警告，并不意味着疾病本身更为严重。

根据最新统计，目前已经有73个国家的超过2.6万人感染甲型H1N1流感，共有142名被感染者死亡。

墨西哥是感染者死亡人数最多的国家，至今为止已经有108人死亡，不过该国确认感染人数仍不超过6000。

而美国则是受感染者最多的国家，至今已有1.32万人确认感染，其中27人死亡。

加拿大则有2100多人感染，3人死亡。另外智利有2人死亡，哥斯达黎加和多米尼各则各有1人死亡。

中国内地截至目前已经确诊102例感染甲型H1N1流感病例，另外香港和台湾各有41例和21例。

WHO 'set to declare flu pandemic'

UN health officials are expected to declare the first global flu pandemic in 40 years, after holding emergency talks on the swine flu crisis.

The World Health Organization called the meeting after a steep rise in the number of cases in Australia.

A BBC correspondent says it has little option but to declare a pandemic now there are nearly 28,000 recorded cases.

Reports say that the WHO had already told member countries it had decided to raise the alert to pandemic level.

Hong Kong said it was closing all its nurseries and primary schools for two weeks following 12 school cases.

The last global flu pandemic came in 1968 over the Hong Kong flu.

That pandemic killed about one million people.

A disease is classed as a pandemic when transmission between humans becomes widespread in at least two regions of the world.

Anxiety management

The latest virus emerged in Mexico in April and since then thousands of cases have been confirmed throughout North and South America.

The H1N1 strain has spread to 74 countries but the WHO has so far resisted labelling the outbreak a full-blown pandemic.

SWINE FLU - THE BASICS

# Symptoms usually similar to seasonal flu

# It is a new version of the H1N1 strain which caused the 1918 flu pandemic

# Current treatments do work, but there is no vaccine

# Good personal hygiene, such as washing hands, covering nose when sneezing advised

WHO chief Margaret Chan talked to officials from eight countries with large flu outbreaks on Wednesday in an attempt to confirm the spread of the disease.

She said she believed the situation could be regarded as a pandemic but wanted clear evidence before making an announcement.

The BBC's Imogen Foulkes, in Geneva, says that while the number of cases has made the declaration inevitable, the problem is that the pandemic phase system is designed for a very different type of virus.

WHO spokesman Gregory Hartl said it had been expecting something more like the deadlier bird flu.

"It was believed that the next pandemic would be something like H5N1 bird flu, where you were seeing really high death rates, and so there were people who believed we might be in a kind of apocalyptic situation and what we're really seeing now with H1N1 is that in most cases the disease is self-limiting," he told the BBC.

"Let's say 98 or 99% of the people we so far know to be affected recover without any need of hospitalisation.

The WHO will have to manage the global anxiety the declaration of a pandemic will generate, our correspondent says.

It is concerned not to trigger panic measures such as border closures and travel bans and is expected to advocate careful medical management, including the moderate use of anti-viral drug tamiflu.

Using it on a widespread preventative scale could simply create drug resistance, our correspondent adds.

Clear signal

The WHO's move follows Australia's confirmation of more than 1,200 cases - a four-fold increase in a week.

All primary schools and nurseries in Hong Kong are to shut for 14 days from Friday in a bid to contain the virus, the territory's chief executive Donald Tsang said.

It follows confirmation that 12 secondary school pupils have contracted the illness. Secondary schools are not yet being ordered to close.

At least 50 people are now confirmed to have the virus in the territory.

The head of the WHO's global influenza programme, Keiji Fukuda, said the situation had "evolved a lot" in recent days.

"We are getting close to knowing that we are in a pandemic situation," he said.

Although most sufferers experience normal flu symptoms and make a full recovery, the WHO has confirmed 141 deaths from 27,737 cases.

Story from BBC NEWS:

http://news.bbc.co.uk/go/pr/fr/-/2/hi/asia-pacific/8094353.stm

Published: 2009/06/11 14:12:18 GMT

BBC MMIX